Bank account FROZEN! Please help!

[Krono]

A default judgement from a year or two ago (had to be at work on court date, union has no leniancy for tardiness) has now resulted in Resurgance Financial LLC filing a 'garnishment' on a shared bank account that I have with my Dad and girlfriend. I have been unemployed for 6+ months now, I thought a garnishment was only against wages? And I thought it was a fraction of income? Instead they put a 'garnishment' of the entire amount owed (they are claiming 12,000 when the actual credit card debt from 5+ years ago was 2,000) and now my girlfriend, my, and my fathers funds are all frozen and I'm assuming Resurgance is going to take it all. This is all taking place in Illinois.

My name was only added to this account a few months back simply to allow my unemployment direct deposit to go through and so that I would have access to it, and now they claim that since it's a 'joint account' and my social number is associated with it, that everything is open game.

The representative at the bank said that I can file an 'exemption for head of household' to 'remove the garnishment' but said I'd have to contact the Sheriff Dept about that, I call them, they have no clue what I'm talking about, and it goes in a circle like this for half the afternoon.

This is pretty much my girlfriend and my life savings including the downpayment for a house we are buying next month.

This is completely ludicrous especially considering I even sent my Father on my behalf to the court date to see what he could negotiate, he met with the lawyer representing Resurgance,my Dad said he said he would settle the entire debt for 1K, the lawyer said that would 'probably be fine' and specifically said he'd pass it to the collections department and they would contact us in a few weeks.

We never heard anything back, until now, just kind of forgot about it. And bam, frozen our bank account and every dollar to our name. We have a 10 month old child we need diapers, food, etc and we are completely lost, devastated and stuck. Our income is all direct deposited and the bank says that Resurgance will get all of that too if we don't get the garnishment removed.

What the heck do I do???

Thanks for your time,

Brandon from IL

[chane]

You need to hire an attorney immediately. One of the worst things you can do is miss court when someone sues you. You give up everything.

An attorney will still be able to help though. Consult with one asap.